Building a habit for something you do at regular intervals, like flossing every night, is hard enough. How do you build a habit for activities that don't involve a routine? If you've got advice, jump in and help out a fellow reader!

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Oblivious in the Moment writes:

So I'm pretty good about starting and keeping habits —but only when they're routine-based. I floss every night before bed. I practice guitar every day at 5:00 PM. I have apps, calendars, and alarms to remind me to do things, and to track my progress every day when I complete a task.

But there's a certain type of habit I am unable to pick up and continue. These are habits that are performed in response to external cues occurring randomly throughout my day. For example, I'd like to take more pictures of my life. But it never occurs to me in the moment that "this would make a good photo." I bought a fancy DSLR camera because I thought it would prompt me to start taking more pictures, but I barely ever use it. I joined Instagram and linked it to all of my social media accounts for the same reason, but still no luck.

For what it's worth, and I think this is a related problem: I'm also really bad about taking notes in class. I can never gauge what is important enough to write down, nor do I ever really go back and review my notes for exams.

How can I start building habits around randomly occurring external cues?

Have some advice for Oblivious in the Moment? Post it below!

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Do you have a problem that needs solving and want help from the Lifehacker community? Email us at tips+wyp@lifehacker.com and we might post it. The best questions are broad enough to apply to other people and have many possible answers (so that you can get lots of opinions from your fellow readers). If you have a question that's specific to you or only has a single solution, send an email to tips@lifehacker.com instead.

Building a habit for something you do at regular intervals, like flossing every night, is hard enough. How do you build a habit for activities that don't involve a routine? If you've got advice, jump in and help out a fellow reader!

Advertisement

Oblivious in the Moment writes:

So I'm pretty good about starting and keeping habits —but only when they're routine-based. I floss every night before bed. I practice guitar every day at 5:00 PM. I have apps, calendars, and alarms to remind me to do things, and to track my progress every day when I complete a task.

But there's a certain type of habit I am unable to pick up and continue. These are habits that are performed in response to external cues occurring randomly throughout my day. For example, I'd like to take more pictures of my life. But it never occurs to me in the moment that "this would make a good photo." I bought a fancy DSLR camera because I thought it would prompt me to start taking more pictures, but I barely ever use it. I joined Instagram and linked it to all of my social media accounts for the same reason, but still no luck.

For what it's worth, and I think this is a related problem: I'm also really bad about taking notes in class. I can never gauge what is important enough to write down, nor do I ever really go back and review my notes for exams.

How can I start building habits around randomly occurring external cues?

Have some advice for Oblivious in the Moment? Post it below!

Advertisement

Do you have a problem that needs solving and want help from the Lifehacker community? Email us at tips+wyp@lifehacker.com and we might post it. The best questions are broad enough to apply to other people and have many possible answers (so that you can get lots of opinions from your fellow readers). If you have a question that's specific to you or only has a single solution, send an email to tips@lifehacker.com instead.